Selby rail crash

The Selby rail crash (also known as the Great Heck rail crash) was a railway accident that occurred on 28 February 2001 near Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire when a passenger train collided with a car which had crashed down a motorway embankment onto the railway line. The passenger train then collided with an oncoming freight train. Ten people died, including the drivers of the two trains, and 82 were injured. It remains the worst rail disaster of the 21st century in the United Kingdom. The driver of the car, Gary Hart, was convicted of ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving and sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found that he had fallen asleep while driving. Hart's insurers paid out £30 million in claims. The Health and Safety Executive investigated the accident, and made several recommendations, including research into the crashworthiness of rail vehicles. The Health and Safety Commission and Highways Agency created working groups to investigate the risks of road vehicle incursions onto railways. The Department for Transport issued a report containing guidance for assessing and mitigating the risks identified by the working groups.

Nearby Places View Menu

Great Heck

Great Heck is a small village in Heck parish, about 7 miles (11 km) south of Selby, North Yorkshire, England. The population of the parish was 201 at the 2011 census. Until 1974 it was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Selby, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council. The village was the site of the Great Heck rail crash in 2001. The name Heck derives from the Old English hæcc meaning 'hatch'.

Landmark Neighbourhood

Heck, North Yorkshire

Heck is a civil parish in the English county of North Yorkshire. The population of this civil parish at the census 2011 was 201, a slight drop on the 2001 census figure of 209. The main settlement is Great Heck, there is also Little Heck at grid reference SE599220. Before April 1974 it was part of Osgoldcross Rural District and the West Riding of Yorkshire. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Selby, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council. It was the location of the fatal Selby rail crash in February 2001.

Landmark Neighbourhood

Hensall railway station

Hensall railway station serves the village of Hensall in North Yorkshire, England. It is located on the Pontefract Line and is 22 miles (35 km) east of Leeds. The line is used regularly by the freight companies GB Railfreight, Freightliner and DB Cargo UK that transport coal and limestone to Drax and remove the gypsum created by the flue-gas treatment equipment. The branch line to the power plant diverges just to the east of the station and was formerly supervised from the nearby signal box, but is now remotely controlled from Ferrybridge signalling centre (see below).

Industrial Landmark

St Paul's Church, Hensall

St Paul's Church is the parish church of Hensall, North Yorkshire, a village in England. Until the mid-19th century, Hensall formed part of the parish of St Laurence's Church, Snaith. In 1854, St Paul's Church was completed, having been commissioned by William Dawnay, 7th Viscount Downe and designed by William Butterfield. Butterfield also designed the nearby Red House and Hensal Primary School. The church was given its own parish in 1855. Paul Thompson describes the church as "a compromise between Cowick and Pollington", both churches Butterfield completed in the same year for the same benefactor. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "very plain". The church was grade II* listed in 1967. The church is built of pinkish-red brick with stone dressings and a grey slate roof. It consists of a nave, narrow north and south aisles, a southwest porch, a chancel with a south chapel and a north vestry, and a northwest tower. The tower has a doorway with a pointed arch, a gabled stair turret, slit windows, two-light bell openings, a cogged eaves band, and a pyramidal roof. Inside, most original features survive, including the pews, chapel screen, piscina, Mintons floor tiles, organ, octagonal pulpit and font, and mosaic reredos, which was restored in 1970.

Church Landmark